Thursday, October 20, 2016

During the Summer of 2009 the Alaska
Railroad ran the DEX (Denali Express) for the cruise ship lines between
mid-May and mid-September between Whittier and Denali National Park,
both north and southbound on Saturdays and again on Mondays. That took
two train sets. The northbound set was put away at the end of the day
in Fairbanks. The southbound run in Anchorage.

I caught a southbound DEX the afternoon of August 22, 2009 at Wasilla
and followed it south to Whittier. It had left Fairbanks very early to
pick up its cruise line passengers at Denali at 7:45 a.m. and would
bring them to a cruise ship at Whittier. As my photographs show, there
is much beautiful scenery for them to see as they ride in luxury.

The train consisted of SD70MAC 4007, a Holland America Tours car, and
five Princess Tours cars. The cars are self contained and required no
electricity from 4007.

I first photographed the DEX just south of the Wasilla depot at 2:25 p.m.
(above two photos)

I then hurried down to Anchorage and caught the train just before the depot. (next two photos)

Here the DEX is passing Potter Bird Sanctuary (foreground) just south of Anchorage at
4:07 p.m. Above the train is the Turnagain Arm of Cooks Inlet.

And again south of Potter at 4:25 p.m.

At 7:00 p.m. the DEX is in Whittier, discharging its passengers. The crew has
run the locomotive around its train so it can head back through the tunnel to Portage.
There are no turning facilities at Whitter.

At 9:11 p.m. it is back at Portage using the wye so it can pull the
train back to Ancorage Yard cab first. In the foreground the higher
track in the mainline and the lower a siding. A crewman is on the
ground throwing switches.

The crew continues to wye the locomotive. I didn't chase the DEX north
to Anchorage. I waited and chased the Coastal Classic north.

I hope you enjoyed my photographs of the DEX and the Alaska scenery. Your comments and corrections are quite welcome.